Picture the employee in your workplace most likely to burn out. If you pictured someone struggling, checked out, or not that invested in their job, this episode is here to challenge that picture, because research says the opposite. Burnout usually doesn't hit your weakest performers first. It hits your best ones: the most talented, most engaged, most invested people, who are often closest to the edge without anyone realizing it until it's too late.

This episode starts with the actual WHO definition of burnout (it's not just “having a bad week”), then gets into why high performers and highly engaged employees are at greater risk.

From there, I talk about four strategies for preventing burnout in yourself:

• Build an off-switch for work.

• Protect mental recovery time on your days off.

• Notice when your self-imposed standards are the problem.

• Ask for support before you're in crisis.

Then, five things managers can do to help, regardless of whether their team is already burned out or they're trying to prevent it from happening in the first place:

• Audit the balance between demands and resources on your team.

• Recognize effort, not just outcomes.

• Watch your high performers.

• If someone's already burned out, actually do something to help them.

• Model the boundaries you want your team to have.

The episode also covers where burnout rates stand since the pandemic, whether remote work helps with burnout, and why women report higher burnout rates than men.

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Sources Cited in This Episode

World Health Organization. (2019, May 28). Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases.

Moeller, J., Ivcevic, Z., White, A.E., Menges, J.I., & Brackett, M.A. (2018). Highly engaged but burned out: Intra-individual profiles in the US workforce. Career Development International, 23(1), 86–105.

Bentley University Center for Health and Business & unBurnt. (2026). When Burnout Looks Like Productivity: The New Risk to Innovation Capacity.

Sonnentag, S., & Fritz, C. (2015). Recovery from job stress: The stressor-detachment model as an integrative framework. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(S1), S72–S103.

Gallup. (2026). State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report.

American Psychological Association. (2023, 2024, 2025). Work in America Survey.

Eagle Hill Consulting. (2025). Workforce Burnout Survey.

McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org. (2025). Women in the Workplace 2025.

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